An exploration of the Airbus fly-by-wire flight control laws that become active when Normal law can no longer function. A follow on to Airbus A330 Normal Law.

This book summarizes the main achievements of the EC funded 6th Framework Program project COFCLUO – Clearance of Flight Control Laws Using Optimization. This project successfully contributed to the achievement of a top-level objective to meet society’s needs for a more efficient, safer and environmentally friendly air transport by providing new techniques and tools for the clearance of flight control laws. This is an important part of the certification and qualification process of an aircraft – a costly and time-consuming process for the aeronautical industry. The overall objective of the COFCLUO project was to develop and apply optimization techniques to the clearance of flight control laws in order to improve efficiency and reliability. In the book, the new techniques are explained and benchmarked against traditional techniques currently used by the industry. The new techniques build on mathematical criteria derived from the certification and qualification requirements together with suitable models of the aircraft. The development of these criteria and models are also presented in the book. Because of wider applicability, the optimization-based clearance of flight control laws will open up the possibility to design innovative aircraft that today are out of the scope using classical clearance tools. Optimization-based clearance will not only increase safety but it will also simplify the whole certification and qualification process, thus significantly reduce cost. The achieved speedup will also support rapid modeling and prototyping and reduce “time to market”.

This book summarizes the main achievements of the EC funded 6th Framework Program project COFCLUO – Clearance of Flight Control Laws Using Optimization. This project successfully contributed to the achievement of a top-level objective to meet society’s needs for a more efficient, safer and environmentally friendly air transport by providing new techniques and tools for the clearance of flight control laws. This is an important part of the certification and qualification process of an aircraft – a costly and time-consuming process for the aeronautical industry. The overall objective of the COFCLUO project was to develop and apply optimization techniques to the clearance of flight control laws in order to improve efficiency and reliability. In the book, the new techniques are explained and benchmarked against traditional techniques currently used by the industry. The new techniques build on mathematical criteria derived from the certification and qualification requirements together with suitable models of the aircraft. The development of these criteria and models are also presented in the book. Because of wider applicability, the optimization-based clearance of flight control laws will open up the possibility to design innovative aircraft that today are out of the scope using classical clearance tools. Optimization-based clearance will not only increase safety but it will also simplify the whole certification and qualification process, thus significantly reduce cost. The achieved speedup will also support rapid modeling and prototyping and reduce “time to market”.

This book provides a single comprehensive resource that reviews many of the current aircraft flight control programmes from the perspective of experienced practitioners directly involved in the projects. Each chapter discusses a specific aircraft flight programme covering the control system design considerations, control law architecture, simulation and analysis, flight test optimization and handling qualities evaluations. The programmes described have widely exploited modern interdisciplinary tools and techniques and the discussions include extensive flight test results. Many important `lessons learned' are included from the experience gained when design methods and requirements were tested and optimized in actual flight demonstration.

The #1 guide to understanding the "why and how" of fly-by-wire flight control systems. This book is an approachable and easily understandable must-read for aviation professionals! Why don't new aircraft designs allow the pilots a mechanical control connection? This book explains how fly-by-wire fixes the top 5 problems with mechanical controls for high performance aircraft. Rather than describe a particular aircraft’s design with confusing acronyms, readers will get a "behind the scenes" understanding for the critical concepts that apply to any modern aircraft. Because these design principles are easily described and understood, readers of this book will be armed with knowledge as they approach their flight manual procedures. Including: - Problems with mechanical flight controls - Advantages of fly-by-wire - How and why can fly-by-wire control systems fail? - Why are four computers better than one or two? - Explanations of the control laws used by business jets, fighters, and airliners - What sensors are needed, and how the system maintains control when sensors are lost - Design considerations for risk mitigation in case of component failures Buy this book to read on your next layover!

The most comprehensive coverage to date of Air France 447, an Airbus A330 that crashed in the ocean north of Brazil on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 persons on board. Written by A330 Captain, Bill Palmer, this book opens to understanding the actions of the crew, how they failed to understand and control the problem, and how the airplane works and the part it played. All in easy to understand terms. Addressed are the many contributing aspects of weather, human factors, and airplane system operation and design that the crew could not recover from. How each contributed is covered in detail along with what has been done, and needs to be done in the future to prevent this from happening again. Also see the book's companion website: UnderstandingAF447.com